Windows XP & Vista - Hardware & Maintenance

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Most email clients feature folders into which you can stuff your email messages. The folders are named Inbox, Outbox, Sent, Deleted Items or Trash, Junk, and Drafts. It’s the Drafts mailbox that seems[more…]

The Deleted Items or Trash mail folder works like all other folders in your email program: It stores messages. The messages sit in the folder and aren’t deleted until you direct the program to purge them[more…]

Whether it’s unwanted email, spam, junk mail, or perhaps a persistent relative or acquaintance who won’t stop sending you cute stuff, most email programs have an easy way to block them. Perhaps the quickest[more…]

The Blocked Senders tool was a welcome addition to the email programs that ship with Windows. It worked! Sometimes, it worked too well. The biggest problem people had with it was blocking people they didn’t[more…]

Junk filters use formidable logic and magical incantations to identify the telltale signs of spam. Or, you can train them to identify email you don’t want. It all depends on how your email program implements[more…]

Nearly all email programs feature a standard message-filtering system. You use this system to organize your email, such as by transferring business messages into a Work mailbox, but you can also use the[more…]

Rules may need refining from time to time. New rules are necessary for unwanted email; they not only make the junk mail filters more powerful but also help them rule out false positives. On the other hand[more…]

When you do a system restore, Windows 7 and Windows Vista choose the most recent system restore date and time. Sometimes, you may want a less recent restore point. For example, when a system upgrade[more…]

System restore points are set automatically in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows Vista resets usually just after midnight (assuming that you’re up that late or leave the PC on all the time). They’re[more…]

Starting with Windows XP, System Restore gained full graphical popularity as a way to recover from common goofs, such as wrong settings or improperly installed software or hardware. But, System Restore[more…]

Some people believe that System Restore is a security risk to Windows so you may want to disable it. For example, you can effectively restore a virus with System Restore, or System Restore can be taken[more…]

A problem that plagued users of Outlook Express for generations was the bad-hyperlink conundrum. Most sophisticated email programs display as a clickable link any text that looks like a web page or an[more…]

You can use the powerful System File Checker (SFC) tool in Windows 7 and Windows Vista to scan and repair Windows operating system without having to completely reinstall the operating system. Once you[more…]

One of the most useful tools for fixing problems in Windows is the Recovery Console. Unlike Windows in its graphical glory, the Recovery Console is a text-mode operating system, similar to the old MS-DOS[more…]

One of the most useful tools for fixing problems in Windows is the Recovery Console. The Recovery Console in Windows XP is available from either the Windows installation disk or recovery disc. Here are[more…]

One useful and often necessary thing you can do in the Windows Recovery Console is fix a corrupt or damaged master boot record (MBR). The MBR plays a role in starting your PC and what happens when it’s[more…]

Knowing how to boot into a Recovery Partition will help you to rebuild, restore, re-create, or just troubleshoot Windows problems. PC manufacturers now often partition a computer’s primary hard drive into[more…]

You can use the powerful System File Checker (SFC) tool in Windows 7 and Windows Vista to ensure the integrity of the Windows operating system, as well as to effectively restore broken parts of Windows[more…]

If you thought that Windows XP keeps all its networking settings and information in only two locations, you’re woefully wrong. Windows XP features a multitude of windows, dialog boxes, and wizards for[more…]

When your computer is on an Ethernet network, it has an IP address that tells the network where to find that PC. It helps traffic flow between computers because each one has its own IP address. If you[more…]